[nabs-l] NABS Membership Call Survey

Mon Aug 27 22:58:02 UTC 2012

Stephanie:

That is a great idea. I had a similar experience as Josh as I voted in
my first election. They were the 2008 primaries, and I was very
excited. When the machine did not work, I asked a poll worker to
assist me. They filled in the ballot as I wished, but the worker did
make some comments about their preference on a politician. This
occured when I said that I did not want to vote for a particular
office, because I was unfamiliar with any of the candidates. I said
something like, "I don't want to fill in anything for this," and the
worker responded with "Oh, I heard that ___ is pretty good. Do you
want me to fill in his/her name?" I chose to still not vote for that
particular office. This practice is illegal, and I chose not to say
anything about it. But I do think that an informational call about
rights and accessible voting machines would be awesome. Unfortunately,
each state is a little different, but information about federal
mandates on the presence of accessible voting machines/rights and some
typical patterns in accessible voting in states would be great. For
example, Washington conducts mail ballots. There are a few precincts
around town, but if you work in a neighborhood in which it takes a
while to get to a precinct, you are at a disadvantage as a blind
person. So, you can either take off work and use public transportation
to navigate to one of the few and very busy precincts and wait in a
3-hour line, or you can find a reader and disclose your voting
preferences. The other animal in this issue is that if you choose to
get a reader to fill out your signature does not match the signature
on your state ID which is kept on file, then your ballot can be deemed
as false and not counted. As a blind person, I do the best I can with
my signature, but I do think that even the most ambitious blind people
are at a disadvantage when having to match a signature, and our
ballots could not be counted, and we may not hear about it, or we
would learn of it after elections are closed. If we are afraid that
our signature may not match that of our state ID, then we can have 2
witnesses sign. But that is 2 more people that have to see my ballot.
I do not think that this practice is common within the states, and I
would definitely not like my experience to dominate the nature of the
call, but I wanted to relay it to show that I think this is a very
good idea. I would personally like some professional/legal
advice/legal suggestions on how this can be changed.

So, if you have any suggestions on people to conduct this call, or
resources for where this information can be found, please share it. If
not, the membership committee will certainly take the initiative to
conduct an informative call if we do in fact decide to pursue this
topic. But I wanted to make sure that since you made the suggestion,
you are welcome to provide suggestions on people to conduct the call.

I know that someone comes to each NC state convention with an
accessible voting machine to show in the exhibit hall. During this
time, people can vote in a fake election and orient themselves to the
machine. I am not sure if NC is still doing this since it has been a
few years since the accessible machines were introduced, but I think
there is still a need for outreach about accessible voting.

Keep the good membership call suggestions coming!
Cindy

On 8/27/12, Joshua Lester <JLester8462 at pccuaedu.onmicrosoft.com> wrote:
> Hi, Stephanie!
> That's a great idea!
> I went to my voting site, earlier this year, and the machine didn't work.
> My Disability Rights person that works for the governor, here said he'd come
> down, to show them how to work it, but he never showed up!
> Thanks, Joshua
> ________________________________________
> From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] on behalf of
> Stephanie DeLuca [sjhhirst at gmail.com]
> Sent: Monday, August 27, 2012 2:53 PM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] NABS Membership Call Survey
>
> I think a discussion on voting as people with disabilities would be good.
> Since a lot of people are on college campuses, it'd be a good opportunity to
> get involved with informing people with disabilities (mainly VI) about
> rights and responsibilities for voting.  I've been to/worked at several
> voter registration drives, and I have NEVER seen information on voting if
> you have a disability.
>
> On Aug 27, 2012, at 2:32 PM, Cody Bair <codyjbair at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi All,
>> As you are probably already aware, NABS conducts monthly membership calls.
>> In order to get this school year started we are currently seeking your
>> input on what topics you would like to see us cover this year. Please
>> either reply directly to this thread with your suggestions or mail them
>> directly to
>> Nabs.membership at gmail.com
>> Sincerely,
>> The NABS membership Committee
>>
>>
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-- 
Cynthia Bennett
B.A. Psychology, UNC Wilmington

clb5590 at gmail.com
828.989.5383